Other bands and artists have hinted at this model but nobody on the level of Radiohead has gone this far. Their new album, “In Rainbows” will be released on October 10 using a “Pay What You Want” model for those who download it digitally.
Says one commentator on Reddit:
“I can't stand Radiohead's music, but I'm going to drop $15 on this
album just to provide incentive for the rest of the industry to adopt
this model. Even though I don't like their music itself, it's hard to
dispute that taking on a risk like this is a HUGE contribution to music
in general.”
(via reddit.com)
[Edit: Well, there's always a catch and apparently Radiohead aren't so altruistic as this move might make them appear at first. The new album is a 2-disc set and if you download it digitally, you only get the first CD. You have to buy the old-fashioned hard copy to get both CD's and that will set you back 40 pounds (which is about $80 CND) Seriously, that's getting into the level of gouging seen only with bands like the Rolling Stones and the Eagles. Congratulations Radiohead – if this is true, you're really sticking it to The Man – “the man” being the guy who loves your music but hates being ripped off and will just download both albums via Bittorrent like he always has.]
In semi-related news, Amazon has started a new service called AmazonMP3 which is similar to iTunes except that they're selling DRM-free music. Their selection is pretty decent so far and although I haven't tried it yet, it's almost enough to make a guy start paying for music again! 
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